Five Labor and three Conservative governments adopted harm minimisation as Australia’s official national drug policy on 2 April 1985 and every Commonwealth, state and territory government since then has implemented harm minimisation programmes. This approach is now endorsed by all the major UN organisations responsible for drug policy. It wasn’t until 29 April 2014 – 25 years after that conclusion – that an Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, could finally admit that “[the war on drugs] is … not a war we will ever finally win. The war on drugs is a war you can lose.”